Who here has a MT?

If you have a Manual Transmission, you know not to rest your palm on the shifter while cruising, right? All the credits to El Constantino from Minneapolis, MN. Here you go! ...and I hope this helps some of you out there.

"TECH NOTE:

Hey remember when I told U not to rest your hand on the shifter while driving (i.e.not shifting). Well, I did some checking on why the manual says not ot do that. It seems resting your hand on the shifter while driving ruins the syncronizers. The "syncs" are the parts of the transmission that help us change gears smoothly. Like when we drop from high gear to low gear, for instance from 5th to 4th gear or from from 4th to 2nd ect... They allow us to do this smoothly by synching or lining up gears so that we may move the stick shifter into position. It is kind of like using a pry bar to get a stuck chain on, a bike, back on the sprockets so you can ride it again. Resting your hand on the shifter even if it doesn't feel like your putting strain on the shifter does add up in wear and tear on this vital part of the transimission. Before the 1940's there were no syncros in cars so everybody driving stick had to learn how to "Double Clutch" to line up the gears in automobiles. It was trickey and you got a lot of grinding gears when doing this. But transmissions were a lot stronger in thoes days and heavier too. The people who use "D.Clutching" to day are Big Rig drivers and race car drivers. Doing this technique helps a driver go smoothly around a track and keeps the Turbos spooled up for high torque applications, also less skidding going around corners. COOL HUH?

COOL NOTE:

Also our Subies don't have a syncronizer for going into reverse, it helps keep the weight down and takes up less space in the transmission. So going into reverse in a Subaru "Stick Shift" will never be smooth. If it is then youv'e got problems... hehe... Best way to beat stickyness in reverse is to shift to first then shift to reverse OR let the clutch out in neutral tap the throttle then smoothly try to get into reverse OR let the car roll forward or backward then get into gear. Remember to be smooth, don'tt fight the shifter, it's your friend, so work with it.

One more thing... some of the hurkey-jerkeyness comes from our flywheel plate in our clutch pack. It is heavy but not heavy enough for our torquie` little engines. Subaru put heavy ones in so our take-offs are smoother from a red light and in stop and go conditions."